


Despite All The Stars

by IShipMyFriendsSometimes



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-08-23 00:43:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16608578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShipMyFriendsSometimes/pseuds/IShipMyFriendsSometimes
Summary: Green's grandpa went missing on the Pikachu Mission, and he's hasn't given up hope searching for him. He has a conspiracy shack in the middle of the desert, for goodness sakes!Red, Gold and Crystal, followed by a suspicious Green, decide to go dowsing in some random ruins and stumble across something... Interesting.This something interesting turns out to be a spaceship with a destination to a 10,000 year old castle with royalty older than that. They find themselves caught up in an intergalactic space war with stakes higher than back at the Garrison ever was.–Essentially, this is a Voltron AU. If you have not watched Voltron or do not like Voltron, have no fear! The plot is completely different, I only stole parts of the world buildingj.–





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> It started it out okay, and it kinda grew legs and ran. Whoops. I used to push myself to get to 1k, now look at me over here with almost 10k in the first chapter lolll
> 
> Anyways, I did change some stuff from the Voltron show, well mainly bc I had this all planned out before the reboot show itself even existed?? So yeah it's kind of a mess.
> 
> Tho I did predict a lot of things lol.
> 
> Again, if you're not familiar with Voltron and/or don't like Voltron, have no fear. This isn't the story where we focus on one character *cough* KEITH *cough*
> 
> Lol saltiness aside I was also planning on writing a fic for this very dead black hole of a fandom, after reading Red Potter (I mean who hasn't??), I decided there was a chance I wasn't just writing this for me and maybe I could inspire others to write too. It's about the journey and not the end, right?
> 
> It's not beta read, there's bound to be typos galore lol
> 
> As for why it's not tagged as Voltron, I think the fandom itself already kinda has an answer.
> 
> Anyways, without further ado (slash without me rambling further lol), here's the first chapter!

“Smell ya later!” Green sneers at Red as he runs away. He hates everyone, but Red pissed him off the most. His stupid red eyes and annoying smile were especially annoying. What a loser. Maybe one day Green would get the present of him going away for good. Ugh, whatever. Green had work to do anyways, no wishful thinking about Red would finish that for him. He had to figure out what had happened to his grandfather.

A while ago, his grandfather was sent into space on the Pikachu Mission. Except, he never came back. The Garrion blamed it on pilot error which Green just knew wasn’t true. His grandfather was one of the singular best pilot in his generation, and he was a damn good Pokemon professor to boot.

The Garrison was the school for people who wanted to be Pilots, Technicians, or Mechanics. They picked one of each and paired  them all up into three man teams. Green is the pilot in his team, though he was going to drop out as soon as this term ended. It wasn't worth it if he didn't have his grandfather.

Besides, all the people on his team were actually so dumb. Tracey Sketchit was his technician and was always just annoying with his “good guy” ways. He was so fake. His mechanic was a girl by the name of Misty. She wasn't bad, though she could be a bit annoying when she agreed with Tracey, and Green disliked her for this reason.

“I can’t believe that we’re going to get to go dowsing in the desert. That actually sounds pretty sweet!” Oh, great. That voice belongs to Gold, yet another idiot Green has the misfortune of knowing. He was always flirting with girls and winking at them, to no avail. It was just obnoxious.

They were going dowsing? Dowsing was essentially the process of looking for stones and items like potions and stuff. Here, it was fire stones because it was a desert around the Garrison.

“Yeah! And with this device I built, we should be all set.” Crystal, (or Crys as she liked to be called) Gold’s best friend since childhood replies. She was tolerable. Green didn’t have anything against her at all, she was always kind of nice. As far as he knows, they are both on Red’s team. Gold is the mechanic, and Crystal is the Technician.

Crystal is the lesser of three evils, in this case.

“Is Red coming too?” Gold asks curiously, and Green stops in his tracks. He is curious about the answer. He couldn't let Red be better than him, for Red was just a copy. Red would never as good as him, ever.

“Yeah, of course.” Crystal laughs. “Does he even have any other friends besides us?”

“...Green?” Gold tries. Crystal laughs harder.

“Yeah right. The day they become friends is the day I get to save the world from evil aliens.” She say, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye. Green rolls his eyes at their antics. Crystal was right, actually, she was probably more likely to save the world than he was to become friends with Red.

They both walk past Green, cracking up, and not noticing him. Thank Arceus.

He decides to head to his shack in the desert. Yes, he has a shack in the desert. He had never known his parents and his grandfather thought the desert scenic. With his grandfather now gone, it had become Green’s shack. Green's shady desert shack that made him look a bit crazy. He blames Gramps for that one.

It had been his for exactly two years now. Today was the day his grandfather was marked as dead on the Garrison records. With some careful hacking, he was able to find out that he wasn't dead, just kidnapped by aliens. Idiots, they could've at least told his family if they weren't going to tell anyone else. They deserved to know. But no, that Garrison was a bunch of ass-kissing bureaucrats.

Now that he's thinking about it, “your grandpa got kidnapped by aliens”, is extremely unrealistic sounding. Whoever it was, it was a giant ship that picked up his grandpa and his crew mates. Professor Ivy and Professor Elm, if he wasn't mistaken. He had only met them on a couple occasions, but they were good friends with him. They went to the Garrison with his grandfather when he was younger, and were his long time friends. Now, they were all missing.

Exiting at the nearby door, he gets his motorbike from the rack and hops on. He revs it up before starting out at a fast pace. He loves the thrill of the motorcycle, and the wind in his face was was cool despite being in the desert.

The journey from the Garrison to his shack wasn't long, but it gave him ample time to think. He had no idea where they were going dowsing, so maybe he should leave it be?

Never.

He drives up to the shack and stops. Red is riding a motorbike with Crys and Gold not too far ahead from it. They approach a dark cave. The only one in the area, as far as he knew. That was probably where a lot of Firestones were, he thinks, looking down at his bag at his pokéballs. He considers his options. He could go into his shack and keep trying to locate his grandpa, and let Red beat him. Or he could finally beat Red at dowsing. Like hell if he was going to let Red beat him.

He turns away from the shack and continues on to the dark cave. He finally makes it there and parks his motorbike. He hops off and drops the helmet next to it, then runs after them and into the cave.

The first thing he notices is that there are symbols of lions everywhere. The walls are dark, in fact the whole cave is dark, be the symbols just seem to stand out.

“What…?” Green trails off, walking a bit closer towards a particular lion drawing on the wall. The lion looks like a cave drawing, though it definitely feels a hell of a lot smoother than rock.

“Why are you here?” Gold asks, bluntly and completely rude. Crystal elbows him hard. “Ow, what was that for?!” Gold cries out. Crystal ignores him.

“Hey.” Crystal waves. “What brings you here to our dowsing adventure?” She asks, rather politely. Red continues to search and pays no mind to Green. It pisses him off.

“Why should I tell you?” He deadpans.

“Touché.” Gold says with left hand in the okay symbol and Crystal shrugs next to him.

“Because you randomly showed up?" Crystal snorts.

Green feels his cheeks warm.

Green shrugs back. “I just saw you enter this cave and figured it'd be a good spot to go dowsing!" He says, and it's kind of a lie, but sorta not. He feels bad for Crystal, she didn't deserve complete unkindness for just hanging out with annoying people. That's why he answered her question. Despite popular belief, Green Oak was not, in fact, an asshole. He was just particular about who he didn't like and why. At least, that's what he tells himself as he lies awake at night, not sleeping.

He walks over and traces his hand over a lion. The carvings feel smooth under his hand compared to the rough texture of the dark walls. All the markings in the cave begin to glow blue.

“What did you do?” Red asks with a criticizing glare. Red doesn't look all that surprised.

“Why do you assume I did something?” Green says, annoyed.

“You always do something.” Red says flatly. Green clicks his tongue in disagreement.

As he's about to retort, he's cut off by the floor opening up. They all fall down a dark chute and into into some water at the bottom of the hole that had opened up in the floor.

“Oof.” Gold landed first, followed by Red, Crystal and then Green.

“Ow.” Green says, rubbing his hip as he got up. The others began to get up after him.

“What the hell?” Gold asks, looking straight ahead. “Is that a giant mechanical blue lion?”

Red begins to glare at Green as he stands up, mad that he landed on him. Or something. Green really doesn't know why, but he glares back because it's Red and Red deserves to be glared at. He ignores Gold and his “Giant blue lion” crap. Knowing him it's probably fake. Maybe another drawing?

“It seems like it.” Crystal nods. “Why would something like this be here?” Green and Red continue to glare at each other and Gold glances over. Green doesn't lose focus in his glaring. If Crystal is agreeing, there has to be something there. Yet, he doesn't want to be the first to stop glaring. He jerks his chin like a challenge to Red who rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

“No idea.” He shrugs, his golden eyes focusing back on the lion.

“Aliens.” Red replies, dead serious and still locking eyes with Green.

“Yeah right, dumbass.” Green denies and feels something akin to panic build up in his chest. He didn't know why, but anyone finding out made him feel like they shouldn't know.

“Why else would this be here?” Red challenges. Green opens his mouth to answer when Crystal interrupts.

“Guys, you have to look at this.” Crystal says, sounding awed. Red and Green both break eye contact, and he hears a slight gasp from his right confirming that Red's seeing it too. It is actually a giant mechanical blue lion. Not a joke that Gold made up. The lion’s yellow eyes seem to be beckoning him, so he walks up to the giant blue shell in front of it.

It was kind of like a wall, blocking him from going in or out. It was completely solid and smooth, and he could feel the energy radiating off the thing. It was powerful, that was for sure.

“Aliens?” Gold questions. Green doesn't explain about his grandpa. As he said before, who would believe him? In his search he stumbled across one word a lot. “Voltron”, as it was, though he had no clue as to what it could mean. Probably just some call for help in another language.

“Green, you should be careful. We don't know what it does.” Red says, in warning to him. That made no sense to him, the lion would never hurt him, but maybe they all saw it differently. He could feel it's emotions and thoughts, and weirdly enough it was beckoning him to get in. It was a… ship?

“Since when do you care?” He asks, turning around to face Red.

“I don't, but I'd rather not be a witness when you die. I'm not going to be the one telling the Garrison you got eaten by a giant blue mechanical lion.” He replies. Green shrugs.

“Whatever.”

He turns back around to face the lion.

Pressing his hand on the forcefield, he felt like the lion was purring. It was a giant robotic ship, but yet it felt right. It felt like the ship was a whole living being. Kind of a nurturing figure. He slowly immersed until he is surrounded by a calming blue. There is a voice whispering in another language. He has no idea of the language, though he somehow knows what it's whispers translate to. One word: Voltron.

Everyone gasps, and Green is broken out of his mental link up with the lion. Coming back to reality, he sees that the shield is down and his hand is by his side. Green is in awe at the lion. The experience of connecting with a lion was strong and it felt protective, calming even. Whatever it was, this thing was powerful. The lion ship put it’s head down, and Green walks into it.

“It’s fine. You guys can come in if you want, it’s not like there’s any other way out of this cave.” Green shrugs, his words mostly sarcastic. Red rolls his eyes, while Crystal looks like she has a million questions about what just happened. To be honest, Green didn't know exactly what just happened himself.

“Good point, my dude.” Gold says, finally speaking up from staring at the lion in awe. They board the blue lion spaceship, and Green gets a flood of images and emotions from the lion. He takes a seat at the cockpit, and looks at his controls.

"I'm definitely not 'your dude'." Green says, and Crystal snorts. He's glad someone appreciates his humor. He can even see the edges of Red's lips upturning.

The lion itself seems to be telling him to pull the lever, so he does launching them up into the air.

Everyone collectively screams at the force of them falling backwards when the ship goes straight up. He remembers what his grandfather had taught him before he went missing and flies the ship straight up, and into space. It just felt right, y'know?

Everyone else just screams and hangs on to each other tighter. Including Red and the other idiot, Gold.

Crystal seems significantly less fazed.

Green keeps his gaze focused on the sky, and suddenly a swirly blue and purple circle appears in front of them. He flies into it, not having any time to turn or flip.

Damn.

If only he had more time to turn away from it.

What was that a black hole? Again, damn. What if he was responsible for killing like... three people? Granted, he'd be dead too—

He can't think. The hole is like being stretched in all directions and heated up to the temperature of an oven when people bake cookies. He squeezes his eyes shut at the pain and tempturate, and soon enough it's gone.

Green opens his eyes slowly, and realizes two things. One: They're stopped in the middle of space. Two: he doesn't recognize any of their stars that they're near.

“This is incredible!” Crystal says, behind his left ear. “We're so far from our own solar system— even our own universe!” She just confirmed his fears. Great.

“Can we go back now?” Gold asks, sounding scared in his other ear. Green resists the urge to roll his eyes.

“I can't, first off, we're in some random place galaxies away from Kanto. Second, Blue is controlling herself. I can't do a thing now.” Green says with a shrug. “Let's hope she doesn't take us anywhere too bad.”

No one comments on the sudden lion nickname, but Gold looks like he wants to.

Blue took them into the atmosphere of a new planet. It carried them over to a huge white castle that looked like something out of a Disney movie. The points were properly spiked too, and the windows were blue glass, much different from the materials on Blue.

“What is that?” Gold asks, sounding breathless. Crystal has a thoughtful frown on her face.

“It looks like a castle.” Red says sarcastically. Green rolls his eyes. "But I don't know, it could be a pool."

“No shit Sherlock, it's a castle.” Green snaps back.

“I'm sorry, I thought you needed me to state the obvious.” Red smirks. The smirk infuriated him to no end. He felt anger burn inside his guy.

"What do we do?” Gold interrupts their argument, but Green has not forgotten his anger. “I really don't feel like getting impregnated by alien tentacles.” Everyone gives him a disgusted look, except for Green who is busy flying, though he wishes he could.

“Gold, you're disgusting.” Crystal sighs.

“What? It's a real possibility!” He defends.

The ship jolts as it lands in the castle courtyard, and everyone’s attention is drawn to the opening of the Lion’s mouth as a ramp down from the ship. They could leave the ship and risk it, or they could stay here. That was all the options he could think of. The ship wouldn't fly back, and getting out of the ship and wandering around was just too risky.

“We should go out there.” Red breaks the silence.

“Are you crazy? You don't know what's out there!” Green glares. Red rolls his eyes and glares back, while Gold and Crystal pretend to be interested in something on Crystal's pokégear.

“Can you operate the ship to fly us back?” Red asks with a huff. Green purses his lips. “Didn't think so. We have no choice.” Red says annoyingly. Green hates him so much. Everything about Red bothers him.  _ Everything. _ Those dumb Red eyes and that stupidly perfect black hair. Even the way he battled bothered Green.

“At least we have our pokémon!” Crystal chimes in, trying to keep the peace. She is right yet again.

“It can't be too bad, right?” Gold says to Green, trying to be optimistic.

The corners of Red’s lips upturn a bit. Green feels his eye twitch. Red never failed to get on his nerves. Ugh, that smug asshole bothered him to no end. He wasn't about to go on a rant about Red, but sometimes...

They all got off the ship only to be faced with the strange castle atmosphere. (“You didn't even know if the planet had a breathable atmosphere, why'd you go first?!” Crystal had asked Gold who just responded with a shrug. Green had snorted at that.) It was about the same as their home planet of Kanto actually. They walked towards the castle looming in front of them, the lights came on in the open hallway. It was unnerving how the hallway was just open and eerily inviting. Almost like it was asking them to come in.

“What now, genius?” Green shot towards Red with yet another glare. Crystal picked up on the venom in his voice and interjected before they could begin to fight again.

“I mean, we are trained to fight by the Garrison.” She starts. “We should go in.”

“It does look kind of creepy though. N-not that I'm scared or anything.” Gold stutters out.

“Sure.” Crystal laughs. She glances towards the entrance again. “I'm not taking any chances. Go, Chikorita!” She sends out Chikorita. Green understands the feeling of uneasiness that radiates off of this place.

“I'm sending out Explobro.” Gold says, looking a little scared. “Y’know, so Chikorita doesn't get lonely.” He adds quickly. Sure. That was it. No one comments though, for they can all literally feel the fear in the air. Gold sends out his Cyndaquil next to her Chikorita.

“I guess there's nothing to do but to go in.” Crystal shrugs and enters the castle, the others not far behind. The lights came on as they walked farther into the castle.

There was a long hallway to go down, so they walked down it cautiously, guards up. For all Green knew, these could be the people that took Gramps.

“This place gives me the creeps.” Crystal says, a shiver running down her spine. Green hummed in agreement. This place definitely looked alien and kind of inactive like everyone had left or died. The wall were lined with cool steel colored metals with lights the gave off an orangey glow.

There was a huge set of stairs that lead up to a control room or a  _ bridge _ , as they called it in star trek. Green remembers watching a few episodes and laughing at how horribly unrealistic it was compared to modern day ships. They continue up the stairs and into the bridge. When they stop in the middle of the circle, they see a bunch of pods come up, kind of like beds but upright.

“Woah, are there people in there? Or— well, aliens.” Gold corrects himself quickly. He wipes the fog off of one of the glasses and uncovers the face of a pretty girl with brown hair and a white dress. She had pink markings on her cheekbones, and pointed ears. Strange. These people of this race looked just like humans except for those key features and their clothes.

Green sinks deeper into his thoughts. What possessed these people to have cryopods in their castle. Wasn’t that just fictional? Cryopods existing was a new one. Sure they had long distance space ships, but they were never that far and their tech wasn't  _ that _ advanced. Should they even bother letting them out of the cryopods? What if said people were—

There was a loud thud, and Green was pulled from his thoughts.

“I guess I'm still half frozen, huh.” A guy around their age murmurs as he falls out of the cryopod. He has brown fluffy hair and a black outfit. He has the same markings on his cheekbones, except they were blue instead. His ears were pointed as well. Did these people have pokémon? That was another thought that popped into Green’s mind. Huh, that was a thing to think about. Maybe, maybe not.

“Who—” Red starts, but is cut off by the guy jumping back out of fear.

“Holy quiznack, don't scare me like that.” He said, a hand over his heart. He didn't seem malicious, but appearances can always be deceiving.

“You guys have strange ears.” The guy frowns. “They're all round!” It was probably weird for him to see, Green thinks. When they're so used to pointed ears, it was weird to see round ones.

A loud “Owww.” sounds from Gold, and Green knows Crystal has elbowed Gold again.

The second cryopod opens up and the girl falls out. “Dad!” She shouts and Green exchanges a look of confusion with Crystal.

“He's gone.” The guy says with a shrug. Apparently he didn't care too much for his dad.

“Thank quiznack for that.” She looks satisfied slightly. Green’s suspicions were confirmed, they didn't seem to like their father. Her eyes focused on them and Green stares right back. “Who are these people with the rounded ears?” She looks concerned. “What happened to your ears? Did someone cut them? Is it a birth defect?”

“White.” Black rolls his eyes and cuts her off from continuing. Green sees Crystal out of the corner of his eye hold back a laugh. Her name was White? Okay, he couldn't really complain since his name was Green, but still. These people maybe just named their kids after colors? Well, unless the guy’s name was any different. Like Jacob or something normal.

“You’re certainly not Unovians. How did you guys get here?” Gold seems to be thoughtful and quiet, which is a new one. Usually he's loud and speaks his mind. Or maybe it was just because Crystal just elbowed him hard every time he opened his mouth to say anything.

“We just kinda flew here in a giant mechanical blue lion.” Red says, rather bluntly. Then again, he was always blunt. It was one of the few things Green didn't hate about him. When you were blunt, there was no toying with or deceiving people. You straight up said what you thought. That was a trait that even Green had to admire.

“Curious. I assume it let down it's barrier for one of you?” The guy asks.

“Black, how else would they be here?” She asks, rather sarcastically. “No, they just forced their way into the ship with their non-existent magic or whatever.”

Now it was Black's turn to roll his eyes. Apparently, their parents enjoyed colors. Black and White? Those were super cheesy names, and he even knew people named Red and Gold. Hell, his own name was Green! But he didn't have a sibling named a different color or something. It was just a one of a kind name. At least at school no one else had the name Green. Now that, would be a nightmare.

“White, no one cares about your sarcasm.”  She crosses her arms over her chest. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Gold trying to say something once again, and getting elbowed by Crystal. Thank goodness for Crystal, or he'd’ve said something to start an intergalactic war. Still, why this castle? Why Cryopods? What the actual fuck was going on?!

“Uh, so.” Black continues to address the group, super awkwardly. Green snorts, and Crystal shoots him a look. “I guess I should explain everything. So, about ten thousand years ago, we lived on a planet called Unova. We are peaceful beings, the Unovians. I am the prince, younger by two minutes, Black. My sister is the princess, White. We basically were a peaceful trading site for pokéitems— much like pokémarts— but bigger. We had a huge movie studio, many people on our planet, and business was thriving. Out of nowhere, the Galra attacked. Or, more specifically, team Rocket. They stole all of our pokémon and blew up our planet. The only chance at survival we had was hidden away years earlier by our... how shall I put it?”

“Fucking father.” White cuts in. “What?” She asks, when Black shoots her a look. “He was a huge quiznack. Anyways, yeah. What he had hidden away was called Voltron.” She continues, ignoring the looks Black shot her for stealing his story.

“Voltron was a giant ship and the universe’s greatest weapon, formed from five different colored lion ships. The Blue lion chose one of you, and you guys who weren't might be able to fly the rest. I don't know how well I can sense quintessence after like, 10,000 years, but we'll see. Right now though, I do think you guys are the rest of the paladins of Voltron.” Everyone stays silent, awed by her explanation.

“Their quintessences do seem to match up rather well.” Black says in thought. He looks at them and then points at Green. “You flew the blue lion, didn't you?”

“Yeah, I did. Does being a space prince give you powers of predicting the past too?” Green says sarcastically. This information was new and weird. Why would they be here? What was going on?

“No.” Black frowns, not getting his sarcasm. “You have the quintessence.”

“Quintessence?” Gold asks.

“It's like, life force energy. The color of it is kind of like a personality type. Well, it's more complicated than that, you see, the cells in your blood are made of a special–”

“Shhhh, you're boring the Paladins.” White interrupts with a wink. “I don't even know your names.” She laughs.

“I'm Gold! It's a pleasure to meet a beautiful princess like you.” Gold flirts. Crystal rolls her eyes. White laughs like he's making a joke. Green doesn't care, he just has questions he wants answered.

“I know, he's ridiculous.” Crystal shrugs. “I'm Crystal, it's nice to meet you.”

“It is nice to meet all of you ...?” She questions. Apparently she didn't know the species name of them, much like her brother.

“We're humans.” Gold cuts in. “From the planet Kanto-Johto, which is like, galaxies away. We somehow went through a portal thing? Something like that.” He shrugs.

“Warp Space. But yes, your planet does sound fascinating.” Black looks interested.

“Oh yeah, and that guy over there is Red.” Gold introduces and Red nods. He's mute a lot of the time, he probably thinks he's too good to talk to other people. Fucking asshole.

“And I'm Green.” Green adds. “So you're telling me we all fly magical lions because we have matching life force energy?”

“Again, it's more complicated than—” Black starts before White cuts him off.

“So, let me summarize, before my dear twin here bores you with the whole thing. The lions form a giant weapon called Voltron which was hidden away by our father years ago before he pushed us into cryopods. The Galra have two sects, Team Rocket, and Team Plasma, though it's impossible to tell who's who. Team Plasma wants to “liberate the pokémon from their prisons” and Team Rocket just wants to steal basically all the pokémon and take over the universe.” She shrugs. The have pokémon in space, which isn't a surprise to Green. That actually makes perfect sense.

“They both want to take over the universe.” Black deadpans. “Just in different ways. Emperor Giovanni is the leader of Team Rocket and all the Galra, while Team Plasma is broken off from them and lead by a man named Ghetsis. If they come in contact with you, they will probably want to kill you, or just steal your pokémon and quintessence.” Black explains bluntly. “Look, to be frank with you all, you all were chosen because with people like Giovanni and Ghetsis on the loose, the universe is in trouble. Big trouble.” Gold looks like he's at a loss for words, Red is mute as usual, and Crystal just looks super entranced by the technology.

Green himself is just overloaded with information. So, the universe needs them of all people to save the pokémon and the freedom of aliens with five giant lions that form a giant weapon named Voltron? And they happen to just be the pilots of the five different ships? But there were only four of them. Why were they chosen? How were they supposed to defeat an entire race? Questions keep popping into his mind.

“If we find the other three lions, the one in the castle will open up. That lion is the Black lion, the leader of the rest. It cannot be unlocked until then.” Black blurts, breaking the awkward silence.

“So how do we find these lions?” Gold asks, finally finding words.

“Simple. Most of them are just on this map.” White opens up a holographic map, and everyone gasps. It was blue lights the formed the galaxies and solar systems and universes. White swiped her hand across it to move it.

“These constellations are light years away from our home.” Green gasps, and Crystal nods in agreement.

“Your planets is…” White scrolls all the way over to their planets and recognizable constellations. “Right here. Which is where you found the blue lion. It is also part of free space.”

“Free space?” Red chimes in, finally.

“Show them how much Giovanni has taken.”

“Right.” White taps something and more than half of the galaxies turn red. The area with Kanto-Johto stays blue, though it is a smaller portion than the red side of the circular hologram of the universe.

“You're telling me, these guys took this much of the galaxies?” Gold asks loudly, while White furrows her brows in concentration.

“It's a lot more than I realized. I guess that's what happens when you're out for a while.” Black shrugs.

“So where are the lions?” Crystal asks, looking perplexed.

“The Black lion, or the leader of the lions, is locked in the castle until we find the others.” White says, looking concentrated. “The pilot is… Black you're the pilot.” She says in realization and starts to laugh.

“I swear dad knew. That's the only reason he named me this.” Black sighs. White continues to laugh.

“Maybe he did.” She says when her laughter finally dies down.

“The Blue lion is right there, piloted by… Green. Looks like your name didn't match up.” White laughs again. Green rolls his eyes, and Gold, Red, Black and Crystal join in with White’s laughing this time.

“It's not funny.” Green says, and everyone ignores him to continue laughing.

“The Green lion is on a nearby forest planet, piloted by Crystal.” White continues, after the laughter has died down. “And the Yellow lion is on the same planet, but on the other side. Piloted by… Gold.”

“Sweet! You hear that, Explobro? I get to pilot a lion ship thing and be an interdimensional hero!” He says excitedly to his cyndaquil who smiles up at him.

“What about me?” Red asks.

“Your name matches your lion like my dear twin Blackie here. You pilot the Red lion, although I can't seem to find it.” She frowns. Green notes the Black bristles slightly at the nickname she just gave him.

“Can't find it?” Crystal asks, hugging her Chikorita.

“No idea. It's just vanished. No energy signal or anything.”

“Maybe it'll be stronger one we gather the rest of the lions.” Black shrugs.

“Maybe.” She shrugs back. “Anyways yeah, we'll take Gold to his planet. Green, you can fly Crystal to the location of the thing if I send you the coordinates, right?”

“Yes, I can.” Green says “I wasn't the best pilot of the year for nothing.” He says rather smugly and he sees Red roll his eyes. Good, making Red irritated made him feel good.

“Okay then, I guess you'll be off. Good luck!” White smiles. Green shrugs and enters the lion along with Crystal. Gold flies out with Black in a small pod, although Green isn't focusing on that right now.

Was that what the Garrison had been hiding? Had his grandfather been kidnapped by Galra? Was that why it was covered up?

He needed answers.

Now.

“Ready to go?” Green asks Crystal with a roll of his eyes.

“Yup!” She says, holding her Chikorita and sitting on the floor with Chikorita in her lap. “I'm ready when you are!”

Green pulls the handle on his right and the ship goes up into the atmosphere. Crystal smiles and holds onto the wall like she was expecting this.

“How long do you think it'll take to get there?” Crystal questions, curiously.

“I don't know. An hour? Two hours? I might be the best pilot here, but I sure as hell haven't seen or piloted a mechanical lion before this.” Green replies rather angrily. He wasn't m ad at Crystal, he was just annoyed at the circumstances.

Crystal snorts.

“You sure about that?” She asks, “You do know Red was the top of our class for piloting, right?”

“I just wasn't focused. I am still more focused on–” He quickly cuts off.

“On what?” Crystal asks, raising an eyebrow. “Girls? Yeah, right.” She laughs at that.

“I…” Green sucks in a breath, and ultimately decides on telling her. If they were stuck in space for Arceus knows how long, she deserved the truth. Also, she was slightly less annoying than everyone else.

“I'm looking for my grandpa, he was on the Pikachu mission. Recently, I hacked into the Garrison's records to see what really happen, because it sure as hell wasn't pilot error from a man such as my gramps.” Green admits, realizing how ridiculous he sounds. “He was taken by a giant ship, and I have reason to believe that it might be the Galra.”

“And what reason is that?” She questions, tilting her head curiously.

“A giant purple ship picked them up. It's on the hacked video feed.” Green deadpans.

“Right.” Crystal laughs, and he's not sure she believes him. They go silent, and Green begins to think. So they're getting the lions to form Voltron, right? Is Voltron like a giant person? Or a giant sword or something?

Maybe it's a giant robot?

Nah, that'd be ridiculous.

Voltron was a big idea anyways. Green honestly didn't know if any of them really deserved that honor.

Furthermore, did he really have time to be on a “Galaxy Saving Team” when all he really wanted to save was his grandfather?

Then again, maybe they could help him. He was not about to trust to the alien strangers or any of these other idiots, so he had to figure out another plan. Crystal knew, and she wasn't all bad.

Oh well.

He'd have time to think about this later—

“That’s a huge magikarp!” Crystal yells.

“What?!” Green asks, shocked. He turns his attention back to the windshield, and he sees it.

What the hell?! Magikarps do NOT come that big. Space was definitely different, that was for sure.

“Do something!” Crystal shrieks, and Green is spurred into action.

Green remembers his piloting training, and manages to avoid the magikarp, but at the price of the ship being spun into a roll. The ship rolls dramatically, and Crystal hangs on to the back of his chair for dear life.

He maneuvers the ship to avoid some trees, trying to find somewhere for it to land. Flying over a forest, he finds a clearing to land in.

The magikarp flies over, seemingly not noticing their ship.

“That was weird. Considering that was the most useless pokémon ever, that was scary.” Green mutters, and Crystal laughs.

“Definitely.” She agrees, and Green cracks a smile. “So do you know where to go to get the Green lion?”

“No idea, actually.” Green frowns. “Wait hold on, I might have something in the lion.” He remembers something (Blue feeds the idea to him), and he reaches his hand into what looks to be a compartment under the dashboard. He rummages through all the random alien nicknacks and such before he finds it. Ah, yes.

Green smirks triumphantly and pulls out a weirdly shaped device. He holds it up and Crystal grabs it.

“So, wow... this is perfect.” Crystal gushes, looking over the device.

The device is a screen attached to a long handle with a thing reminiscent of a thermometer attached to the left side. The handle is about the size of three or four pencils side by side. It is colored an off white creamish color.

Green shrugs. “Sure. So do you know how to use it?”

“Nope.” Crystal replies, and taps one of the buttons below the screen. The screen lights up dramatically. “Okay, maybe I'm better at this than we thought.”

Green waits as Crystal fiddles with the device for a few minutes, before she seems to see something.

“Found it?” He asks, opening the lion's door and mouth, and getting out of his chair.

“Yup, it's not far from here. Maybe a mile or less? Something like that.”

“Alright, then let's go.”

They exit the ship, and are met with the humid temperatures of the climate. The air even sticks to them, this wasn't going to be a whole lot of fun. It was also rather hot, Green felt himself sweating already.

He looks around at the canopy of trees, the rainforest here though was purple. Unlike the ones on Earth though, the trees were really small and kind of looked like bushes. At least it wasn't like some kind of weird tall grass though.

Green looks to his right at Crystal, who looks unfazed at the climate, and excited. Her blue eyes sparkle with unbridled excitement, and he was sure the device added to that. He looks back at the ship and sees the shields are up, and that's good. Crystal looks down at the device and Green wonders how her hair stays up like that. Weird.

Crystal's Chikorita quickly crawls up to her shoulder from the ground, but she doesn't seem to care.

“Alright, so if we look at this map, the lion should be…” Crystal says, looking up a Green and the glancing down at the map with a frown. “That way.” She points towards the mountains.

“Are you sure?” Green asks.

“Yup.” Crystal replies. “C’mon Greenie, let's go.” She gives him a small smile before dashing off towards the directions of the mountains.

Green sighs. Great, he was too old for this.

Nevermind the fact that he was seventeen.

He sighs and runs after her. When he catches up, he sees a river that runs across the mountains, and has a small canoe where Crystal is standing at the side they're on.

“Green!” She waves, “What are you waiting for?” She laughs, and Green gets in the canoe.

“Maybe for you to be less annoying? Oh wait, by that time I'd be dead.” Green shoots back with a smirk.

“Oh yeah? I think you just like to talk about yourself.” She smirks back, and Green smiles.

“Not as much as you seem to like talking about yourself.” Crystal grins at his reply.

“Yeah, I do!” She jokes. “Just kidding, do I look like Gold?”

They both crack up at this random comment, it is not at all relevant, but yet humor is still necessary to get through these stressful times. Intergalactic wars and all that jazz.

Silence hits, but it's not too awkward.

Especially not since the boat was moving. The boat floats across the river and a little downstream, and they wind up near a giant pile of branches and sticks. When the land on shore, Crystal smirks before running up the pile and jumping down a hole in the pile. Green gets out of the canoe and waits.

While he is waiting, he decides he needs to figure out if the Galra were the ones that took his grandfather or if it was someone else. Who could've taken him? Who would want and elderly human with knowledge of the earth or not? White and Black seemed to not know of them, so they must've been way less advanced than anyone else in the universe. Or they weren't around whenever the heck they got frozen.

That brings Green to question two. Why would they need an elderly human and/or a bunch of middle aged humans? Or even humans at all, since they were such mere specks on their civilizations. Then again,the Galra were known as the Galaxy assholes according to Black and White. Or maybe Black and White were the bad ones? He had no reason to trust them after all.

God, when did his life become so complicated? Before it was, “okay I'll hack to find about Gramps, but I might only find Garrison files”. Now it's, “Which aliens stole Gramps?”

Green sighs, crossing his arms.

How long would this take?

Then, the Green Lion emerges, flies up into the air and does a barrel roll before landing gracefully in front of him.

About time.

Crystal walks out of the mouth of the lion, grinning ear to ear.

“Green!” She cheers. “I'll drop you off back at Blue, and we can both fly back to the castle!”

“Whatever.”

“You say whatever now, but I know you don't want to be the one walking back to your lion.” Crystal says, a smug grin growing on her face.

Green grumbles, but can't refute that claim.

He walks into the Green lion, almost laughing at the irony of Green in the Green Lion. Honestly, some higher power must've been looking out for him, because at least he wasn't piloting the Green Lion.

That would just be too coincidental.

Crystal smirks before cheering as they fly up into the air. Green rolls his eyes, but he feels to corners of his lips turn up a bit.

They fly for a little in silence before she lands close to the blue lion.

“You're welcome by the way.” Crystal says, winking. The Chikorita on her shoulder copies her, and Green stifles a laugh and rolls his eyes.

“Thanks, Crystal.” He replies sarcastically.

“For the record, it's Crys.”

“Fine. Thank you,  _ Crys _ .” He teases, which feels so odd to be so familiar, but it's at the same time refreshing.

Crystal just smirks and gives him a two fingered salute as they both exit the Green Lion.

“You’re welcome, Green-Bean. Now, was that so hard?” She jokes, and Green smirks without answering. “Well, see ya back at the castle then, Green!” She runs back into the Green Lion, and Green rolls his eyes again, his lips upturned.

She was truly crazy.

Green boards his own lion and takes off not long after her. They both begin the fly back to the ship.

Though Crys was totally right about the cheering, flying was  _ awesome. _ There was no other way to describe it other than that. The control in his hands, the confidence that he felt when flying, it all just made him better. Blue made him feel like he was born to fly.

Though that'd be ridiculous. If he was born to fly, he'd have the Green Lion for rather obvious reasons.

He smirks, and speeds off faster, eager for the adventure of a lifetime.

Who knows where they'd end up?


	2. The Yellow Lion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gold and Red depart to find the Yellow lion and encounter danger along the way.

If there was one thing Gold hated, it was waiting. After Green and Crys left from the ship, it was all they could do. Black had promised as soon as Green's lion landed on the planet they'd send Gold in a pod to the other side of the same planet.

That was twenty minutes ago.

Twenty minutes too long in Gold's opinion, but he had always been impatient. Even Black himself agreed with that assumption, and he had just met Gold! Then again, Black probably didn't understand the concept of having fun. Black was the biggest stick in the mud he had ever met.

“We can go now.” Black says, looking up from what looked to be an alien dashboard. It had a few flashing lights with a screen and buttons in rows.

“We?” Gold asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m coming with you, it's not safe for you to go by yourself.” Black shrugs.

“True. Last thing I'd want to be is a munchlax dinner.”

“Oh, wait. Take these.” White nods and tosses Gold what looks to be a yellow handle. Then, he tosses the same thing in black to Black. “The Galra might attack, so you can’t be too careful.”

Gold snorts. “What am I supposed to to do with this? Whack them on the head with a handle?”

Black rolls his eyes. “No. You have the squeeze the  _ bayard _ and the weapon will become the one best suited for you.” He demonstrates by squeezing his handle, which quickly produces a thin black sword.

“How do I–”

“Squeeze.” Black interrupts with an eye roll, and Gold shuts his eyes, squeezes the handle tightly, and hopes for the best. It gets heavier in his hand. When Gold opens his eyes, he sees a yellowish-white blaster that is small enough to move quickly with, but big enough to snipe.

“This is so cool!” Gold holds up the blaster to inspect it, and finds it is mostly white with yellow accents over the top and inside of the handle. Finally, he got to play the hero rather than being the mechanic of the team, a job he was only half decent at.

Red re-enters the room, he had gone to the bathroom ten minutes earlier (or whatever their equivalent was), and had apparently spent ten minutes doing whatever. Then again, their bathrooms were probably pretty confusing. Gold knew he sure as hell wouldn't know his way around the space bathroom.

“Wait, let me go instead.” Red says, to Black.

“Why?” Black raises an eyebrow.

“Two things. One, if you're a sought after prince for the Galra, wouldn't it be better if I went instead? And two, I may not know Gold all that well, but you sure know him a lot less and I'm not exactly sure who to trust.” That was actually the most Gold has ever heard Red speak at one time. In total, maybe.

Black looked speechless, and Gold decided to take pity on him.

“Look, bro, I know you're a prince and stuff and probably didn't go outside all too much,” Gold starts, “But I would feel more comfortable if Red came along with me instead of you.”

White visibly stifled a laugh, and Gold winked at her. Gold saw Red even slightly smile out of the corner of his eye.

“That makes sense, I guess.” Black resigns, tossing Red the red bayard.

Red gives Gold a questioning look.

“Squeeze it like dat ass, bro.” Gold answers, and Black tries not to, but he laughs. White bursts out laughing soon after, and even Red snorts.

“Alright,” White says after they've stopped laughing. “You guys can go down that hallway and take a left to find the pods.”

“This one?” Gold points towards a dimmed blue hallway with minimal lighting and Black nods.

“Yup. Don't mind the darkness, we're working of getting proper power in the ship. With the way that this has been here for around 10,000 years, it's no wonder it doesn't work too well.” He shrugs, not looking worried.

“Black! The central power center of the entire ship is weirdly dim, the core thingy is probably not charged.” White shouts from at the dashboard and helm.

“ _ Stasis core. _ It's probably overloaded with not a lot of work over the centuries and then the sudden increase in work to power the entire castle.” Black mutters. “Good luck.” He calls, slightly louder before retreating over to the dash.

Gold actually understood some of that. Huh. Maybe being a mechanic was finally paying off. Then again, he didn't actually know what a statis core or any of that was so…

Gold heads down the hallway, Red not far behind. They march dark hallway in silence. The hallway grows darker the farther they walk, and at the end, Gold could barely make out anything. They near the end of the hallway, and Gold can't take the silence anymore.

“What do you think we should believe about all this?” He wonders aloud, as Red presses a button to open a pod. How Red knew that or who told him was a mystery to Gold.

“I think they're not lying,” Red said, and Gold gave him a minute. Sometimes it just seemed like Red was mute so it was probably hard to speak if you're mute all the time.

Well, that's what Gold thought anyways.

“What reason would this Blue lion take us here, and why else would we find other lions?” Red continued. “Why would the lions be real if they made up the Voltron story?”

“Do you think we can trust them?” Gold asks, as they enter the pod. It was a room about the size of four port-a-potties stuck together. Small, but still big enough for four people. Luckily there was only two of them.

“Yes.” Red says, firmly. “I do.” And with that, Red turns his attention to the window. Gold takes that as a sign that the conversation about that is finished. He doesn't exactly have anything else to say, so they sit the rest of the ride in silence.

They finally land on the other side of the planet, a dessert covered in rock. Cliffs are everywhere, it looked like a stereotypical Pokémon Planet desert. It was still breathtaking to see though.

Gold feels assaulted by the heat as he exits the pod.

“Arceus, I think I'm going to turn into a prune. Then no one will want to date me, ever!”

“I mean, you already have the attractiveness of one.” Red mutters and begins to walk away in a certain direction with a square(ish?) shaped device in hand.

“Thanks for– Hey!” Gold runs after him. He manages to catch up quickly, considering Red is walking and Gold is running.

After a few minutes, Red huffs in frustration.

“What?”

“I'm not going to find anything in this heat.” He answers, giving the device a death glare.

“And why's that?” Gold asks. Red turns the screen towards him, and Gold realizes that those fluctuating and changing symbols are not just randomness. The coordinates are changing.

“Oh fuck.” Gold eloquently states.

Red nods.

Gold considers their options. They could go back to the pod, or they could stay here. Or, as a last ditch resort, they could hang out in a shady area or cave until the worst of the hest passes.

No matter which one they chose, Gold knew they couldn't stay in this heat for very long; he was sweating profusely in his sweatshirt.

Then the ground falls in a tiny hole, expanding towards Gold. It was underneath Red though, so he had fallen through.

“You're kidding me.” Gold says, before falling into the hole.

Unfortunately, when he lands, he does not see the Yellow lion. Or much of anything.

“Red, you there?”

“I'm here.” He hears Red's voice coming from somewhere behind him. “Anyway we can get light? I only have my Bayard and I doubt that gives off light.”

He checks his bag for his pokéball and throws out his cyndaquil.

“Go, Explobro! Thanks for providing light, buddy.” Gold smiles, and Explobro makes a noise of happiness. They can see a portion of the room and a dark hallway to continue into. Gold picks up Explobro, making sure he still has his Bayard in his bag.

Explobro snuggles into his chest, and Gold and Red are off into the darkness of the hallway. They listen and walk cautiously, just in case something is there.

Red trips over something suddenly, and Gold turns around.

“You okay?” He asks concernedly.

“I–” Red starts off. There is a dragging noise and Red makes a groaning noise that moves farther away as if he is being dragged. He probably is. By what space Pokémon, Gold doesn't want to find out.

“Red!” Gold voice does  _ not _ crack as he shouts.

Explobro jumps out of Gold's arms, and Gold activates his bayard into a gun. He can't see a thing and…

Damnit, he can't shoot like this. He deactivates his bayard and puts it away. Gold hopes that Red will be alright, because that was terrifying.

He barely notices as Explobro jumps back into his arms and make a cooing noise.

“Should we keep going, or should we go find Red?” Gold's voice  _ did not _ falter on the end of that question. Just like it totally didn't crack earlier.

Explobro gives Gold a look in the dark of the room that borders on bravery. It is then that Gold steels his will. He has to do what is right, despite the twisting feeling in his gut.

“You're right, Explobro. We have to go.”

Explobro nods.

“We're going after Red.” Gold says, determinedly. “Explobro, use ember on the floor, maybe we'll find something to burn.”

Explobro spits a bit of fire onto the floor and soon enough something burns. It fills the room with the smell of mold and mildew. Gross.

It also reveals a dragging mark in the dirt.

“Nice, dude!” He high fives his Explobro who makes a noise of satisfaction.

Gold follows the trail until the light fades out a few feet later, it leads to a side tunnel different from the one they came from. This path has a slight light at the end of it, well, at least brighter than solid darkness.

He ignores the twisting in his gut as he runs towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Heh, that sounds like a metaphor about his life. He continues to run until he reaches close to it.

The light is dim. Gold wonders what could be past the edge of the tunnel. He cautiously, for once, walks into the room.

Only, it isn't a room, it's a hallway with a left and right passage. Which way should he go?

“Alright buddy, I guess we'll have to make this choice the only way I know how.” Gold states, determinedly. “Eenie meenie minee mo, catch a tiger by the toe. If the hollers let him go. My mother picks the very best one and you are not it.” His finger lands right.

“Guess we're going left.” Gold announces in a whisper, mostly to make himself feel less alone. At that thought, Explobro shifts in his hold and Gold hold him tighter.

Gold turns left and walks down the still dim, but slightly brighter than the last, tunnel. He can make out symbols on the walls, sort of like the ones back on Kanto-Johto with the blue lion. He touches them, but nothing seems to happen.

He follows the symbols down the passage, tracing his fingers across them. A light appears kind of like how a movie projector works, and out of the light comes symbols and lion projections. They dance and move, and Gold can feel himself gasping in awe at their beauty. A yellow lion dances around Gold and settles in front of Explobro, who is also in awe when Gold looks down at him.

The symbols seemed to be alive, projecting out of the walls and dancing into the air in shapes of Lions. Well, a lion. Which brings Gold to another thought. Lions went extinct centuries ago when they evolved into Pokémon. What metals were they made out of to last this long without rust or damage?

He's a mechanic for a reason, but the metal on the ship wasn't anything recognizable, even by space standards. The castle-ship thing still was made of a different and more plausible metal. These metals, they radiated energy. He had never seen anything like that before.

The only metals or materials that radiated energy on Earth was nuclear energy, and that was basically cancer. So what was the deal with this? Who made these lions? And why would they make such a powerful weapon 10,000 years ago? What could've made these people so desperate for a weapon, for a savior?

“That doesn't make any sense.” Gold mutters, deep in his thoughts.

Gold sighs, and Explobro climbs up to his shoulder before settling in. Red was still missing and he needed to find him. For as close as they weren't, Gold didn't want Red to be injured or hurt from a random space Pokémon. Red and him were sorta friends after all, and he owes it to him to keep him safe.

The teen turns away from the wall and continues down the passage. He rounds the corner to see a door to the right with light emitting from it. Bright light, but flickering like fire had been lit. Torches or something.

Gold peers into the room without entering.

What he sees is strange.

Red is in the center of the room on an dais with sunlight pouring straight down on him. He is wrapped in a white thread-like substance. Surrounding the dais is more of the white stuff, and the walls are lined with torches and runes. The room is mostly made of of sandstone, and the runes look like alien hieroglyphs. Well, that's what Gold would call them anyways.

Red looks to be struggling against the white stuff, but to no avail.

Without wasting any time, Gold rushes into the room.

“Red!”

Red shakes his head, eyes growing wider.

“Gold, don't! Leave!”

Gold opens his mouth to ask why, but the words don't come out. A shadow slowly comes to loom over him and the walls. That had to be something big, no doubt. He turns around slowly to see a giant joltik, almost the size of the Blue Lion.

Holy shit.

This thing is probably ten times taller than Gold with huge pincers. It is extra hairy with sand matted into its fur, and surprisingly, it has breath that smells horrible. Gold can't help but to think he eats pokémon like Explobro.

Gold frowns deeper and glances at Explobro.

“Hang on, buddy.” He murmurs, wondering about how to fend off the slowly approaching joltik.

Explobro shoots an ember of fire at Joltik, freaked out. Joltik backs up and the fire misses him narrowly. Damn.

“Nice one, Explobro!” Gold cheers.

Joltik screams and lunges at Gold with its huge crusty pincers. Gold has nowhere to go except to slide underneath Joltik.

“Okay, maybe this isn't going according to plan.” Gold screams as he avoids the pincers narrowly, gaining a shallow scratch on his face. It still stings though. “I’ll distract him, and I'm counting on you to fight him, alright?” Gold asked, Explobro who makes a noise that Gold thinks is a yes.

Explobro hops off Gold's shoulder, and Gold backs up. Explobro runs away, towards the direction of Joltik.

It's not much of a plan, but it will work. Well, at least he hopes.

“Hey, sparky!” He calls, and Joltik stops to register where the sound came from. Joltik are mainly dark living creatures, so it's no surprise that it doesn't take long for it to find him.

“Yeah, I'm talking to you. I bet you're so mad, because your family didn't love you because of your chronic ugliness!” Gold didn't even know what he was saying anymore, he was just trying to make a good distraction for Explobro and keep Joltik's attention off of Red.

He was totally aware he'd gone back to third grade insults. Still worked though.

Joltik crawls fast towards Gold, bingo. Hook line and sinker, the Joltik had fallen for his insults. He doesn't know if it understood him or if it just dislikes loud noises, but either way it worked.

Explobro decides to act. He uses ember underneath Joltik's belly and manages to damage him a bit. Joltik roars in pain at the burn on his stomach. Joltik hated fire apparently, it made sense that an alien Joltik would have the same type matchup as a regular Kanto-Johto Joltik.

Gold cheers again. “Whoo! Good job Explobro! Nice damage!”

Explobro preens.

Joltik backs up quickly and snatches Explobro up into his pincers, ready to eat. Explobro can't hit Joltik with his fire at the angle he's being held at.

Gold freezes.

“No!” He chokes out. “Don't eat him! Eat me instead!”

Wait.

Gold remembers his bayard in his bag. He digs around and pulls it out. Then he squeezes it into a gun and aims it at the Joltik's huge eyes.

“You'll be sorry you ever messed with us!” He proclaimed. He misses the first shot, but manages to hit the second. Then the third, then the fourth.

The gun makes a cool sound, and the recoil is next to nothing. Gold could get used to this paladin thing.

Joltik snarled in pain and backed up a lot. Gold kept shooting, and eventually the Joltik dropped Explobro, who ran over to Gold and perched on his shoulder again.

“Yo, Explobro. Can you go over to Red and free him while I hold off dumbass here?” Gold asks, distractedly. He sees Explobro nod out of the corner of his eye.

Gold focuses on his shooting, and after a minute, or five, Gold isn't actually sure, Explobro comes back and perches on his shoulder. Gold smirks. He puts his bayard away and runs to help Red as Joltik is busy with it's injuries.

“C'mon Red, let's get out of here.”

Red sits up, now free from what Gold is sure is Joltik webbing.

“How?” He asks, frowning.

“...I hadn't gotten there yet.” Gold admits.

Joltik stops rubbing at his eyes and runs over to them.

“At the count of three, we all jump.” Red replies, determination in his eyes. “Stand up here.”

Gold complies and stands on the dais, with Explobro on his shoulder. He waits for Red to count, the Joltik coming closer. Explobro is shuddering on his shoulder, and Gold pets him comfortingly. He also minimizes his Bayard back into a handle and shoves it into his bag.

“One.” Red says, as Joltik rears up. Joltik is coming even faster now, pincers at the ready. Gold never thought that things that he found in his kitchen could be so big and scary.

“Two.”

Joltik is about five feet from the dais, and coming in fast. Red glances at Gold and then back at the Joltik.

“Ready?” Red asks

“Always.” Gold replies, smirk in place. Joltik is right in front of them when Red yells.

“Three!”

They both jump, Joltik underneath them when they land again. Then, Red uses Joltik to push off into the hole the sunlight is pouring out of.

“Oh, smart.” Gold says, before pushing off of the Joltik. Joltik roars, but Gold is reaching the edge. Gold begins to fall again, and he screams.

“I got you.” Red says, from the outside of the hole. He hoists Gold up, and they both land on the sand. Arceus, today was weird.

Gold lays there for a moment before realizing it's not too hot. He looks at the sky and sees that the sun is setting. That explains that. Explobro crawls onto Gold and nudges his pokéball.

Gold returns him to it, and puts the ball back into his now sand covered bag. Everything about him was sand covered actually.

“What now?” Gold asks, at a loss.

“I don't know.” Red replies bluntly.

“We could go back to the pod…”

Red sits up and shakes his head. “The pod was programmed to go back to the castle ship.”

“I guess we're stuck here, then.” Gold resigns himself to lay back down in the sand, careful of his hair. Sand is gross after all. Also, a pain in the ass to try and get of his hair.

The ground is warm, and Gold feels himself being lulled into comfortable a sleep. His body begins to be covered with the warmth that he knew came from the sand, and he can't bring himself to fight it. It's so welcoming…

A sense of peace washes over Gold, and he closes his eyes. Finally, he felt comfortable, away from the worries and thoughts of others, without Lions and Pokémon. He felt content, even when he felt grains of sand enter his nose and mouth.

“Gold snap out of it!” A voice called from afar, sounding as if it was underwater. Whoever it was, they could wait. The peace was overwhelming, he felt content, happy, comfortable. He was being dragged down into the ground and couldn't bring himself to care.

Gold feels his body light, like floating on air. Nothing would make him want to wake up or get up. What feels like a fang is on the back of his neck, and still he doesn't care. He reaches into his sand filled bag and brushed a bunch of things while looking for something to speed up the process. What process? He can't bring himself to care.

A harsh nip on his nose brings him back to his senses.

He's _drowning_ _in sand_.

Gold's self preservation kicks in. He panicks and struggles against the sand. He sees a hand being offered to him and grabs it, and Red pulls him out of the ground. He stumbles forward and falls to his knees in front of Red.

Gold pants for a minute, Explobro looking angry at him. What…? How did he get out of the ball?

“Not your fault.” Red says, shrugging at Gold. “There are pokémon out here that we could hardly dream of, much less be aware of.”

Explobro glares at Gold and gives him another warning nip on the nose before snuggling into him. Gold wraps his arms around Explobro, his thoughts all over the place. Maybe he just broke out…?

What the hell just happened?

Apparently a pokémon attack, from what Red said and the fang thing that he had felt in his neck, it had to be something like that. Damn. It was a blessing that he wasn't eaten just then. If he had learned anything today, it was that space pokémon are scary. Wait. Gold remembers reaching into the bag, he could've pressed Explobro's ball then.

“Thanks for saving my life, Red.” Gold says, eternally grateful.

“You saved mine, earlier.” Red shrugged, though there was a slight quirk of his lips.

“It's what friends who are in space and also paladins with giant robot lions and magic fairy tale stories about a robot-man that sound fake do.” Gold responds, grinning. They aren't close at all, but Gold definitely wants to be better friends with Red.

Red laughs at that and Gold joined in as well. It wasn't really that funny of a joke, but it was nice to have the tension ease out of the air. Two near death experiences was two too many. They stop laughing after a little while. They laugh for a long time simply because they need the laughs to feel more at ease. Gold's guard is still up, don't get him wrong, but he needs to chill a bit.

Explobro shifts in his arms, and he stands up.

“It's definitely cooler than when we landed here, maybe the device works now?”

Red nods, looking tired, and pulls the device from his pocket. He holds it up and checks the stuff that Gold can't see that is on the screen and nods when he sees something.

“What is it?” Gold questions.

“Coordinates.” Red replies. “To the lion.”

“What are we waiting for then?” Gold asks with a smirk.

Red doesn't reply and starts walking in a direction that Gold follows in. As they trudge through the desert, the air begins to cool and it begins to get chilly. Gold is glad that Explobro is warm in his arms, keeping him warm, and that he's wearing his lucky sweatshirt.

Along the way they encounter a few random wild pokémon, but nothing all too big. Dugtrio, and a few others that are new to them, but still fairly small and useless. Well, in Gold's opinion they are. Who would want a phallic object as a friend? That's just weird and gross. Also, said phallic object had a face…?

Gold shivers, and it is nothing to do with the cold. Explobro snuggled into his chest more after that, and Gold smiles down at him affectionately. Explobro is his best pokémon. To be fair, Explobro is his only pokémon.

Lightning flashes in front of the setting sun; thunder claps, as Gold looks up into the sky. There was an absence of clouds in the sky, so why would it be thundering? Was this a desert storm thing that he had learned about on Animal Planet? Or was this something else, another pokémon perhaps?

Red stops, and Gold gives him a questioning look. The lighting runs at Red at full speed and stops in front of him, giving them a chance to look at it.

It was a Pikachu. He was standing, staring up at Red with his eyes. Red nodded in understanding to a few words of “Pika-pi” and then he let the Pikachu onto his shoulder.

“Red, we don't know anything about space Pikachu. It could be dangerous.” Gold warns, and he swears to Arceus that the Pikachu is glaring at him.

“Since when have you been concerned about danger?” Red asks flatly, raising an eyebrow.

“Touché.” Gold replies, as Red starts walking again. Pikachu rolls his eyes at Gold, and Gold knows he's not just seeing things. He's a sassy Pikachu, then.

Explobro sits up in Gold's arms and crawls up to his shoulder, much like Pikachu on Red. Explobro affectionately nudges Gold, and he's reminded that he shouldn't try to pick fights with pokémon (not battles, those were with turns and rules), even if they were really annoying.

Really annoying. Pikachu and Gold glare at each other while walking there, and Explobro does his equivalent of a laugh a few times. Traitor. Maybe he'd battle them one day.

Pikachu is still glaring at him when they approach a system of caves along a wall of a huge dark mountain. There is five caves with little holes on the top shaped like the mechanical lions. They were shallow enough to see the back, but still darker than the night that had fallen upon Gold and Red during their walk.

The cave was dark, but a few steps into it the walls start glowing, much like a blue lion. Gold takes into detail how majestic and amazing the symbols were when he actually gets to look at them. Still though, he really wants to find Yellow. He can feel her reaching out to him through his feelings. She wants to be found, she wanted to be able to protect again.

She is eager to meet him.

Red had stopped when they got into the cave and Gold walks past him. His mind felt clear, his heart felt warm.

_ This is what has been missing all along _ . Gold realizes, as the thrumming in his veins gets louder the closer he gets to where he assumes the lion is.  _ This is what I need _ . Gold thinks, and Explobro on his shoulder seems to think it's the right decision, judging by the lack of noises.

Gold looks to Explobro on his left shoulder who nods at him. Explobro actually nods. This was the right decision.

He reaches a wall, and it's a dead end. There is no Yellow in here. No power, no friend, no bond. Nothing. He was wrong.

Gold almost feels weak at the realization when Explobro points to the wall.

“You want me to touch it?” Gold asks, feeling like one of those random annoying protagonists in movies.

Explobro nods, and Gold touches his hand to the wall. He knows Red is somewhere behind him, but as to where, he's not exactly sure. Nor does he really pay enough attention to it.

Gold touches the wall, and it lifts up to reveal the Yellow Lion, in all her shielded glory. She had a forcefield, much like Blue, but she was bigger and rougher looking. The robotic joints on top of the thighs and arms looked way thicker and more brutal than the sleek(ish) lines of Blue.

Gold took a few steps forward and pressed his hand into the forcefield, a disappearing pattern rolled out from his hand.

“Nice to meet ya, Yellow.” Gold smiles up at Yellow, and he sees Red stand next to him out of the corner of his eye.

“I agree.” Red adds and Gold gives him a thumbs up and a grin.

The Yellow Lion leans down and opens her mouth, which is the opening of the ship, to Gold and Red.

“This is sick!” Gold exclaims, excitedly running into the cockpit of the lion. Red follows him, hovering behind the pilot seat that Gold has just sat down in. The walls have an interior lined with yellow, of course, and there is a giant window to see where he would pilot. The controls were all in the color yellow.

It was absolutely amazing.

No other words.

Gold thinks it must be that lever in front the seat that starts the ship to fly out of there and into the sky. Or it could be the button. But he really wanted to pull the lever...

Well, there was only one way to find out.

Gold pulls the lever, launching the ship forward. The shoot straight out of the cave and up into the sky. Explobro roars in excitement, and Gold cheers.

“Whoohoo!” Gold cheers again, in wonder at the ships workings. It was different riding in a Lion than piloting one. Gold has honestly never piloted anything in his life. Ships usually looked fairly standard and boring, but this? This was pretty freaking amazing.

Explobro is smiling, he notes finally focusing on him after ignoring him for Yellow.

“So how exactly do we get back to the ship?” He asks, and Red rolls his eyes, but like in a friendly way. Gold doesn't know how a guy that doesn't talk a lot can have so many expressions.

“If you just enter the coordinates to… uh…” Red answers, becoming more unsure. Gold can tell he doesn't exactly know either. Damn it, where are they going? He is hungry from all that bullshit they just went through!

Yellow flashes in his mind, along with a few images. He feels reassured.

“Wait, Yellow's telling me to…” Gold trails off, listening closer and closing his eyes.

He gets a flash of Yellow herself and then a certain button on the dashboard and a little number keypad popping up. A sequence of numbers appear after those images, and Gold feels like he knows what he's doing, for once.

Coordinates, of course. Or maybe it was something else. Gold would bet it was coordinates though.

Opening his eyes, he presses the same button on the dash and enters in the numbers that order. He presses the button again in what he assumes is enter, and off they go.

“Nice one, Gold.” Red says, after he presses enter and Yellow takes them on an autopilot course.

“Thanks, bro.” Gold smirks. “Wait, what kind of food do you think people have in space?” He asks, the hunger in his stomach becoming more apparent. That oatmeal he had at the Garrison for breakfast feels like it was years ago. In reality, it probably was a few hours ago, but still.

“I have no idea.” Red states. “Maybe they'll feed you worms that just eat you from the inside.” He replies, straight faced. Gold feels a cold sweat.

“Worms that eat me from the inside? Like a tapeworm that breaks through the skin?” Gold pales.

“Maybe.” Red confirms, mysteriously. Gold feels both his eyebrows raised and he feels actually afraid. What if they did feed him worms that ate him? What if they ate people? What if they had a giant pokémon pit for feeding people into under the ruse of “paladins”?

Or not even that, what if Black and White were lying to them? What if they weren't who they said they were and were actually plotting something immoral? What if they were actually working for these so called Galra?

Red laughs.

“Your face.” Red gasps out, falling to his knees and clutching his chest. “That was so worth it.”

Gold groans.

“You killed my appetite with your awful sense of humor. If this was in a book, this scene wouldn't even be funny.”

“Since when do you read?” Red questions, after he finally stops laughing.

“I dunno, it sounded better in my head.” Gold admits, staying focused on the stars ahead. Why should he blindly trust White and Black, if that even was their real names, about anything? Why should he believe anything? How much did he even know about the others, what if they were in on it?

They fly in silence for a few minutes, a ship appears on the radar.

A ship…?

Gold continues flying, unconcerned. This probably happened a lot in space. It was like when you were driving and you go on the other side of the road past a car going the other direction.

A blast shot out of the ship and, like a Star Wars cliché, narrowly missed Yellow. Gold growled. Assholes. These were probably Galra, if they weren't a lie.

“What now?” The words flew out of his mouth before he could even think to ask them.

“Fight them.” Red replies, Pikachu nodding in agreement on his shoulder. Gold has almost forgotten about Pikachu, but the fact that Pikachu is looking at him without glaring at him completely overrides that.

Gold concentrates on talking to Yellow, and she gives him a feeling like a growl back with a few images of the Galra fighting previous paladins. There was no doubt now, these were definitely paladins. Yellow feeds him a few images of how to use the laser and slashing with the claws on the ship before giving him a purr of encouragement.

Gold opens his eyes amongst the confusion, and Red takes a seat with Pika in his lap, knowing something is coming.

Gold uses the lever to fly the ship backwards to body slam it into the Galra ship.

“Nice one!” Red cheers, from his position on the floor. Gold smirks and lets loose on the remaining Galra fighters that appeared.

He grabs the steering wheel and uses the stereotypical movie-aircraft-gun. To be honest, he's never used one of that before, so this was brand new. Though it does look pretty easy in movies.

Gold aims at the Galra in the field and shoots at them, pushing the lever forward to slam his lion into the other ships. He pulls the lever back and takes aim, shooting one down finally.

“Take that, you slimy purple bastard!” Gold shouted, Red cheering from the floor. Gold doesn't even know if Galra are purple, or slimy. He's never seen one.

Three ships remain, two shoot at him from either side while one comes in the front. Gold body slams the front one with his lion, pushing his lever up to thrust the Lion forward.

Two left.

“Pull left!” Red shouts suddenly, and Gold does, jerking the ship sideways. The Lion is narrowly missed by a giant missile. Apparently it wasn't all laser beams and lightsabers in space.

“Thanks for having my back.” Gold says, surprised.

“That's what friends are for.” Red shrugs, and Gold is pretty satisfied that he's finally considered friends with Red. “Pull back and ram the one on the left, then make a run for it. The one on the right seems to have more of those missile things, and we don't know how many the ship can take.”

“Got it.” Gold agrees, and rams into the one on the left before flying away. The number on the dashboard morphed between different symbols and actual numbers. “Should that number be that high?” Gold asks, looking at what he assumed was the miles left to the castle.

Then, a portal much like the one that took them to the castle in the first place appeared. Gold looked back at the rapidly approaching Galra and flew in through the portal.

The portal was disorienting. It was better than the last time they went through it, but it was still disconcerting and unnerving. Gold felt a bit dizzy by the time that they had exited the portal, and definitely more than a bit nauseous.

The castle was in sight, they had arrived. Gold pushes the lever forward and leads Yellow to land in the castle courtyard. There is already the Blue Lion, as well as a green one.

Gold wasn't really listening to White earlier, but was there one in every primary color?

Why did the Lions match their names? Well actually, considering Green had piloted the Blue Lion, they didn't exactly. Crystal most likely piloted the Green Lion, which left Red to the Red Lion. Heh. Now that was a funny thought.

_ If he nicknames his lion after the color like I did _ , Gold thought,  _ then Red will be friends with Red _ .

Gold lands the ship harshly and Red falls even though he's sitting.

“Sorry.” Gold shrugs, and Pikachu glares at him from Red's lap. Ugh, Pikachu really didn't like Gold.  _ The feeling is mutual, Rat. _ Gold thought bitterly as he glared back.

Red stands up and Pika scampers up to his shoulder. Gold gets out of his seat and they exit the lion together.

“You found it!” White shouted as she ran outside to inspect the lion. “Are you guys okay? Did you run into any trouble out there?” She asks concernedly.

“I think we ran into the Galra.” Gold grimaces. White frowns.

“Come inside and you can tell all of us the full story.” She responds, and Red nods.

When they get inside, White leads them to what looks to be a well-lit dining room table. Green is already sitting in the seat to the left of the head of the table, Crys is sitting at the head of the table.

“Wow, you must be shook, you didn't even bother to hit on her.” Crys jokes, and Gold pouts.

“Hey! I'm not a flirt, I'm just looking for love.” Gold defends.

“More like looking for trouble.” Green adds, making Red snort and Crys laugh. Gold rolls his eyes playfully and takes a seat on Crys's other side.

“Tell me what happened. The whole story.” White says, taking a seat next to him. Black enters the room with plates of what looks to be green goo that he sets on the table. Gold tries not to gag at the sight of it.

Gold explains to White everything that had happened to them since they left the castle.

“And the Galra just attacked you? Even though you were piloting a Lion?” Black asked, lost in thought.

“They're really getting cocky.” White adds. “There was a time when they were afraid of the Lions.”

“But how did they know where you were?” Crys interjects.

“No idea, they just came out of nowhere.” Gold shrugged, and everyone could feel the air of fear in the room.

“Well, we have to figure something out.” Black sighs. “That hallway is your rooms, red is Red's, blue is Green's, green is Crystal's, yellow is Gold's, white is White's and Black is mine. Knock if you need anything.”

Gold nods, laughing at the irony of their color names. It just doesn't match sometimes and that was pretty funny.

“Our names are really weird.” Crys mentions, and Gold agrees.

“Is color names a sign of being a paladin?” Gold asks, dumbly. “Because Crys you'd better leave.”

“Damn.” Crys laughs, and White joins in. Black sighs exasperatedly, and Green gives a derisive snort.

“Our dad decided this was a good idea to name us after colors and then thought it would be funny to give us those themed rooms.” White rolls her eyes. “It's not. I expect all of you to be up early tomorrow, we'll do some training so that what happened today doesn't happen again.”

Red is the first walk away down the hallway with the rooms.

“He really doesn't say much, does he?” White asks.

“He's always been like that.” Crys shrugs.

“Yeah, probably because he thinks he's too good to talk to anyone else.” Green huffs. “Whatever, I'm out. Smell ya later.” He says before following Red down the hallway.

“'Smell ya later?’” Black asks, confused.

“It's something we say on Earth… well, actually I've only heard Green say it.” Gold replies. Which is true. Who else ever said that?

“A catchphrase?” Black asks.

“Something like that.” Crys says absentmindedly. “I think I'll turn in too. Sorry Gold, I'll catch up with you later, but I'm wiped.”

“No problem.” Gold gives her a two fingered salute as she exits down the same hallway. She walks into her room as the others have done before.

“What do Galra look like?” Gold asks, after the door has shut.

“Well the phenotype, or genetic makeup, of a Galra is made up of a certain amount of genes differing from us Alteans.” Black starts, prepared to launch into a science lecture. Gold, again, feels dumb. He looks to White who looks absorbed in a device.

“Yeah… no.” Gold responds. “I got none of that.”

“You didn't…? Well. The Galra–” Black starts, only to be cut off by White who looks up from her device. It looks kind of like an old flip phone, except the glow is bright and the outside is silvery.

“They're usually purple and furry with cat ears.” Black looks a little annoyed, but he seems to give up to floor to White peacefully. “They look like us but furrier, and it's purple, and they have bright yellow eyes.”

Gold feels a laugh building up.

“Wait! So the Galra are just furries?!” He shouts, laughing harder.

White and Black look at each other, confused.

“What’s a furry?” White asks.

“People who dress up in fursuits for entertainment.” Gold replies, still laughing.

White and Black still look wildly confused.

“I will never understand that planet.” Black sighs. White nods.

“You said it. Anyways, I don't know when you woke up today, but you should sleep.”

“I'm not that tired.” Gold yawns.

“Mhm.” Black rolls his eyes. “Go to bed, we have training tomorrow and armour to give out, so go to sleep.”

“Fine. Night.” Gold says, walking to the yellow room. He enters the room after the door opens to be greeted with a pretty awesome sight. The room was steel colored like the rest of the ship, with the exception of a few futuristic square white bookshelves. There was a closet on the right, and in front of the closet was a door.

Gold walks to the second door and pushes it open, it's a push door and not a slide door. Inside the room is a bathroom which Gold doesn't really care about all too much. It's nice and all, but it really didn't matter to him. He also didn't have any clothes or hair products in space, so he was going to have to work around that. His hair was flat-ish right now, but if he didn't use hair products the front would spring up, looking sharp enough to poke someone's eye out. Literally.

He walks out of the bathroom and closes the door. There is a bed to his right with a white bed frame, covered in yellow bed sheets and soft looking pillows. Gold drops his bag on the floor and crashes face first into the pillows, sighing at just how soft they are. He doesn't even bother to put the covers on him as he slowly falls asleep.

Gold honestly didn't know space could even be this peaceful.

He drifts off to sleep, surprisingly not having nightmares about his day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm sorry I didn't get this put on Christmas, I had to visit my grandma and we had an awesome conversation so I actually didn't type it then, and then I got the flu, and then midterms happened, and then pinkeye. I'm a mess. I'm okay now, sorry this took so long. Thank y'all for actually reading this and waiting for this to come out! Your support is amazing and I loved reading your comments! (Especially my long time favorite fanfic author you know who you are lol) but seriously guys, thanks a lot for sticking with me!
> 
> Also, note on Explobro's name: I know Gold canonically has a Cyndaquil that evolves called Exbo, but honestly, Explobro is such an in character name for what Gold would call his pokémon, I couldn't resist naming him that.


End file.
